21st Century Skills – What are they?

Getting my students ready for their future jobs in the workforce is a very real challenge in Kindergarten. However, it is my job as an educator to introduce them to skills that will promote their success in the future. As part of my graduate school requirement I have been introduced to these skills and an organization called the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. Their main purpose is to promote the concept of these new skills and push the integration of these skills into our curriculum. As P21 states: there exists a huge gap between what students are actually learning in school and what they really need to know to be successful in their communities and workplace.

I bet you are wondering what these new skills that students need to have mastered are. These skills are vital for a person to be successful in their future and even for a child to be a successful member of a classroom community. I found the website http://www.p21.org/ to be useful in educating me on what the 21^st century skills were. You should go online and discover the new push towards education! I was excited to see that 15 states have already taken the initiative to create curriculum that will set their students up for success. I think that just by educating myself and my student’s parents I am preparing my students to be successful members of their community!

Chelsea Blasius Lewis

Graduate School: Application Week 2

Hello Fellow Graduate Students,
I teach Full Day Kindergarten in Salt Lake City, Utah. This week we were asked to write about what purpose blogs can play in our classroom and extending our students' learning publically. The purpose that I would like this blog to serve would be as a way for the parents to feel a part of their child's learning, a connection tool!  I want this to be a place where educational conversations or concerns can be discussed openly and honestly; where students can  showcase their best work. Is there some kind of gadget that could be set up to display a slideshow of student successes other than a video feed?  How would I set that up?
I am curious about how I can use this blog as a way for my students to interact with content. I have provided safe links that are age appropriate as a way for the students to interact with some of Utah's CORE curriculum. If I could find a way to display student work as a group then I could use it to enhance lessons. In addition, I could refer parents to videos or websites that expand on our classroom lessons. For example, if we are learning about penguins, I could link a You Tube video that shows them swimming and attach follow up questions so that my students have support with what they are learning about in school. I believe it is very powerful for parents to ask their child what they are learning and be able to add new information. One way to enhance lessons through the blog would be to use it as a publishing tool. The students could publish a writing piece, then when they went home, open the blog and either retell what they learned that day or brag about their accomplishments!
I believe that a blog is a good tool for instructional content because it is a way to establish a connection between home and school. As of this ponit in my career as an educator I have yet to find a great way to do this. I look forward to learning more about blogs and utilizing this one in my classroom!
Chelsea Blasius-Lewis

Graduate School Requirement

Hello families,
I am currently enrolled in graduate school through Walden University. A requirement of the program was that I create a blog and use it for the graduate class. I wanted to create a blog that I would actually use after class was over. For the next few weeks I will be dialoging with fellow students on this blog about how technology affects our students and our teaching. Please excuse our conversations, or feel free to join in. Thank you so much!
Chelsea Blasius-Lewis

Welcome to our blog!

This is a place for us to share our classroom success stories and needs with you at home. We hope this will become a place for us to have conversations with you and allow you to communicate with other parents in a similar situation.